Cockpit Video Recorders to become mandatory
The Reverend
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A rather "delicate" incident recorded in a Cathay Pacific A330 flight deck resulted in the loss of the participant's livelyhood with that airline!
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There are several camera angles which would be very useful to me as pic; wheels relative to taxiway edge, wingtip clearance, cargo hold to confirm or not smoke warning. Depressing to note that none of these are even under discussion while there's an unlimited budget to provide fodder for lawyers.
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And those CVR's were only allowed after their use in discipline/enforcement was outlawed by statute.
Paying passengers on some airlines are routinely observed by a video camera from the cockpit door - should I expect my nose picking onboard the plane to appear on youtube too?
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Only as stage 3 of a 3 stage process.
Stage one. HD recordings of HR department activities regarding treatment of crew.
Stage two. Ditto, for flight planning/crewing/maintenance
Stage three (budget stretched now). Low def video akin to petrol station (gas station in colonial parlance) monitoring. Super grainy pictures leaving much to the imagination.
Stage one. HD recordings of HR department activities regarding treatment of crew.
Stage two. Ditto, for flight planning/crewing/maintenance
Stage three (budget stretched now). Low def video akin to petrol station (gas station in colonial parlance) monitoring. Super grainy pictures leaving much to the imagination.
Paxing All Over The World
SLF here.
I regret to observe that those who never leave the ranch (board members and their lawyers) will always seek to rely on automation / computers / equipment / machines / etc. to do their job for them.
If they were on top of their jobs in recruitment, training and supporting crew in a unique job (which they do not properly understand) then they would not need to shout for ever more machines to cover their @rse.
So - this WILL happen and it will spread around the globe. The only hope is that, once the equipment is being developed - you can at least get some cameras in the hold etc. The weight of these is now down to a few grams and the extra hard disk storage required is, again, very light and cheap. So, doubtless, mgmt will find other reasons to say no.
I regret to observe that those who never leave the ranch (board members and their lawyers) will always seek to rely on automation / computers / equipment / machines / etc. to do their job for them.
If they were on top of their jobs in recruitment, training and supporting crew in a unique job (which they do not properly understand) then they would not need to shout for ever more machines to cover their @rse.
So - this WILL happen and it will spread around the globe. The only hope is that, once the equipment is being developed - you can at least get some cameras in the hold etc. The weight of these is now down to a few grams and the extra hard disk storage required is, again, very light and cheap. So, doubtless, mgmt will find other reasons to say no.
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Stage one. HD recordings of HR department activities regarding treatment of crew.
Stage two. Ditto, for flight planning/crewing/maintenance
Stage two. Ditto, for flight planning/crewing/maintenance
We can extend that to recordings of top management and board meetings:
'Who decided when, what, based on what indications'.
After all it's the shareholders money, the stakeholders pay and profit share and most of the time even the taxpayers money!
So if someone needs to be liable in a crash, metal or money, it should be possible to identify the responsible gals and guys.
After all we all thrive to improve safety in each and every aspect, don't we?
This includes my money!
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Cameras in the cargo hold - good . Thermal imagers in the cargo hold - better. Seeing a 'hot spot' before it bursts into flames might buy some valuable time. Cameras enabling flight deck to have a look see at engine pods, landing gear, etc. - great.
Ac makers griping about cost and weight - plain bs. Every rinky-dink cellphone comes with a hi-res camera the size of a pinhead. Besides, with them ac makers experimenting with electrically powered wheels in order to do away with the towbars,tugs and taxi fuel, crews will need some good cams in lieu of a rearview mirror
Ac makers griping about cost and weight - plain bs. Every rinky-dink cellphone comes with a hi-res camera the size of a pinhead. Besides, with them ac makers experimenting with electrically powered wheels in order to do away with the towbars,tugs and taxi fuel, crews will need some good cams in lieu of a rearview mirror
Cameras enabling flight deck to have a look see at engine pods, landing gear, etc. — great.
Time taken to select an image and evaluate the scene precludes the usefulness of cameras in all emergencies though!
OK let me have my flight of fancy..
The camera wish list... select from below according to aircraft type
1 x each engine; cowlings, fluid, fire
2 x wings; flap condition and deployment, snow ice, deicing checks(?) fuel leaks
1 x elevators; snow ice, deicing checks (?)
1 x nosegear; tyre condition, deployment, brake fire.
1 x each main landing gear; tyre condition, deployment, brake fire.
1 x thermal cam in cargo holds; fire, security of cargo
1 x each passenger cabin; general surveillance including doors.
2 x wingtip clearance
1 x night/thermal/nose mounted forward looking; horizon of last resort?
A good image of control surfaces of wings on wide bodied aircraft need 2 or three cameras per wing...
The issues of lighting, glare, shadow and reflection of challenging subjects such as black tyres and reflective fuselage can be mitigated by using new HDR (High Dynamic range) imaging technology.
To reduce cockpit workload, cameras could be grouped into five groups; landing gear, cargo, control surfaces, engines, cabin. Automatically pre-selected into a group of thumbnails on a touch screen according to the phase of flight. Overridden if smoke and fire sensors in hold or engines are activated, whereby relevant cameras would be selected on screen.
The pitots are so important (AF447).... is a dedicated pin size camera/s with led a bad idea?.. would a thermal/night vision "horizon camera" have helped the AF447 crew? once they were out of heavy cloud?
One has to say that an interior shot of the flight deck itself would be the least useful in the above list
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Just to note, there seem to have been a number of recent incidents where a flight deck camera could have shed some light on why they occurred. In particular, in the AF447 and Ethiopian/Beirut situations the pilots were believed to be pointing at certain instruments and wondering "what it was doing" or whether its value was correct. A camera could inform us as to what instrument was being pointed at. In the Polish/Smolensk crash (and some others), an issue has been whether there was someone extra in the cockpit directing things or distracting from things. Again, a camera would have been highly useful in determining if this was correct, and if so, who it was. In EgyptAir or SilkAir, a camera would have removed all doubt as to whether the loss of control was deliberate, inadvertent, or due to some system failure or external influence.
While there certainly could be privacy issues, I don't think there is much doubt that for evaluating the cause of incidents, they would be quite useful.
Ducking now ...
While there certainly could be privacy issues, I don't think there is much doubt that for evaluating the cause of incidents, they would be quite useful.
Ducking now ...
While there certainly could be privacy issues, I don't think there is much doubt that for evaluating the cause of incidents, they would be quite useful.
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A camera pointed at the instruments would serve as a backup of sorts if the black box was not recovered.
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What's recorded in the orange box may not include 100% of what's displayed on the pilots' screens
What is recorded in an EFIS system is the output from the display management computers. What goes to the screens goes to the FDR.
The questions nobody seems to be asking is, will it improve flight safety or simply make life a little easier for investigators? Have the installation of CVRs prevented any accidents? Will the installation of video prevent any? Prevention is the supposed purpose of these devices.
What will be next? Caps with electrodes so brain activity can be recorded?
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The questions nobody seems to be asking is, will it improve flight safety or simply make life a little easier for investigators? Have the installation of CVRs prevented any accidents? Will the installation of video prevent any? Prevention is the supposed purpose of these devices.
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What is recorded in an EFIS system is the output from the display management computers. What goes to the screens goes to the FDR.
AF447 orange box did NOT record what was seen on BOTH screens. Read up on the preliminary reported factual data . . .
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Saying
is very different from saying
The RH displays on AF447 was never going to be recorded by the FDR regardless of the condition of systems or aircraft.
It is even so when not everything works.
The limitations of an FDR is the number of parameters chosen and their sampling rate. Both of which can probably be improved quicker and at less costs than installing one or more video cameras and associated equipment. Most QARs record more detailed data than the FDR already.
The desire to have cameras in the cockpit seems to me to be more about having the latest and shiniest tool even though it does pretty much the same as the old ones.
AF447 orange box did NOT record what was seen on BOTH screens
What's recorded in the orange box may not include 100% of what's displayed on the pilots' screens when electrics or software anomalies creep in.
Yes, that's when everything works.
The limitations of an FDR is the number of parameters chosen and their sampling rate. Both of which can probably be improved quicker and at less costs than installing one or more video cameras and associated equipment. Most QARs record more detailed data than the FDR already.
The desire to have cameras in the cockpit seems to me to be more about having the latest and shiniest tool even though it does pretty much the same as the old ones.
Below quote is from the VS27 flight thread (which relates to a virgin flight turning back this month) where a poster describes action the crew took on a flight to Miami in 2004 following a similar smoke in hold warning.
It is shocking that one has to wait for transfer of heat into the passenger cabin for confirmation of a fire in the hold?
Would a camera in the hold have eased concern in this case? or given the crew of VS27 confidence not to deploy the slides?
After 15 mins, Aft Cargo temp remained absolutely constant (low) and as there was no sign of heat on the aft cabin floor it persuaded the three of us that perhaps there was less of a chance of a fire in there.
Would a camera in the hold have eased concern in this case? or given the crew of VS27 confidence not to deploy the slides?
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The questions nobody seems to be asking is, will it improve flight safety or simply make life a little easier for investigators? Have the installation of CVRs prevented any accidents? Will the installation of video prevent any? Prevention is the supposed purpose of these devices.
Link
But then the underlying problem would not have been discovered.
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KBPsen . . .
The RH displays on AF447 was never going to be recorded by the FDR regardless of the condition of systems or aircraft.